King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were captured attempting to flee France during the French Revolution. The royal jewels were turned over to the revolutionary government and housed in the Garde-Meuble.

A deep blue diamond weighing approximately 45.5 carats appeared in London, where it was described by the London jeweler John Francillon. His description is the first reference to the Hope Diamond as we know it today.

Harry Winston purchased the Hope Diamond from Evalyn Walsh McLean’s estate in 1949, exhibited the Hope Diamond worldwide in his Court of Jewels exhibit, and then donated the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958.

1668-1669

Tavernier's diamond

King Louis XIV was fond of beautiful and rare gems, especially diamonds. In December of 1668, the explorer Jean-Baptiste Tavernier met with the king to share a collection of diamonds collected on his recently completed trip to India. In February of 1669, King Louis XIV purchased the lot of diamonds, including a large blue diamond weighing 112 3⁄16 old French carats (approximately 115 modern metric carats) for 220,000 livres (Bapst 1889). In recognition of this transaction, the king honored Tavernier with the rank of nobleman (Morel 1988).

It is commonly assumed that Tavernier acquired the diamond on his last journey to India (1664-1668) and that it came from the Kollur Mine of the Golconda region. However, evidence for both source and timing is circumstantial, as Tavernier makes no mention of the acquisition of the diamond in the published accounts of his journeys. The Kollur Mine is considered a likely source because it was known for producing large and colored diamonds (Post and Farges 2014), but there were several diamond mines throughout India during the time of Tavernier’s voyages, and the diamond could have come from any one of them. The diamond must at least have originated in India, as India was the only commercial source of diamonds in Tavernier's time.